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The evening was creeping in over the Western plains, the shadows growing long and places winding down and growing quiet. The Daltons had never been to this side before ever and were simply curiously following Luke to see what he was up to. It was absolutely no surprise that they soon lost him and had turned to bickering.
The bickering quickly snaps shut when they hear a scatter of gunshots from a nearby shack and a defining thud of a body. The brothers soon see a dark figure emerge, keeping it’s head down as it mounts a nearby horse that eyes the four and does the most terrifying whinny. It appears like a reddish brown horse with spiked blonde hair which is threatening enough in itself and is clearly not pleased its rider has been witnessed.
Finally the Daltons can agree on something: run.
They run for it, however, Averell dives off behind nearby boulders having noticed a detail on the rider that none of the others noticed. The rider appeared to have a similar flick of fringe as Luke! The horse and rider halts just outside the boulders believing all the Daltons have been successfully chased off, the horse snorting as it turns and makes way to a disused barn. Averell can tell the rider is riding side on so this was clearly a female.
The fringe though. How did no one else notice that?
Averell considers going to find his brothers but heads towards the barn instead. He finds another entrance point and gingerly slides in behind some crates to see this rider in a vague oil lamp light, dismounting her horse and then staring across at a familiar white horse and his rider… Luke! She has a distance between them which must be a maintained thing as her horse shoots a glare and a growl when Luke moves.
“Just moving my standing position, Rooster…” Luke mumbles.
The female rider says nothing.
“How long are you gonna keep this up?” Luke asks the female rider. “Surely, this supposed list of people you need to kill is almost up. What did your ‘boss’ say?”
The female rider gets her horse to settle down by a ladder leading to the hayloft. As she turns Averell can see the facial similarities between her and Luke, the same green eyes though her eyelids look heavier. Her face seems more drawn and it’s much more like she’s had a worst deck of cards in life compared to most.
“Keep your observations to yourself,” She mutters, barely focusing on Luke.
Luke sighs deeply.
“I can’t help it,” He says. “You confuse me. You act like you don’t want to be near me yet here you are. You won’t talk about family, why we got separated, what happened in your own life- do you understand why I’m consistently upset, Violet?”
Violet. That’s a nice name… Averell can’t believe someone as fierce has a soft name like that. What even was her relation? A sister? Luke has a sister?!
She has no response to Luke, seemingly ignoring him as she climbs up the hayloft ladder onto the other level. Luke makes a clear sigh of frustration then sits down just by his own horse, patting the white neck.
Averell considers going but curiosity gets the better of him, there’s a rope nearby that must lead up to the hayloft! Taking that, he scrambles up and shuffles silently behind the crates and peeks out towards Violet… this feels like she wouldn’t allow it. It’s much more closer than what she was standing in regards to Luke!
She’s wiping a gun with a rag that is stained with quite possibly blood. As she sits down Averell can sense an element of inner turmoil that she’s covering with this fierce personality. Her long dark hair and dress made her almost shadow like if it wasn’t for the pale orange neck bow around her neck which seemed out of place… maybe it was covering a bruise or scratch that wouldn’t shift.
Ugh. None of this felt right to watch her. It was time to find his brothers.
Averell makes a move back but his foot catches upon a board, he somehow stumbles forward but manages it in such a way it’s not with much noise at all. It’s enough for him to be exposed in front of Violet who lightly gasps as Averell comes to his feet though remaining low. She had such a significant appearance of fear wash over her face.
It was a look of fear, not fear of him in particular more fear of his gender. A man. A male. An adult male. Her eyes were wide open and she was stifling back breathing too fast as the two locked eyes, he knows approaching her would definitely be a wrong move so instead gently sits down and hopes it signals to her he isn’t a threat. She seems almost taken aback by this move though makes no comment on it. It hurt him to think she was carrying a lot from years of quite possibly forcing to comply… especially since it appeared Luke had not a clue of how deep the scars ran.
Averell knows it’s his time to go. He didn’t want to get caught by that horrendous horse… not that horses could climb ladders anyway (he hoped). He manages a vague smile then backs off entirely, behind the crates and soon out of the barn.
~
It isn’t too long before Averell reunites with the brothers again. He considers saying he saw Luke but decides against it and lets them all argue between one another as they walk on through the plains in, hopefully, the correct direction. Joe notices how silent Averell is and pulls away from the argument to speak to him.
“What’s up?” Joe asks.
“Luke has a sister,” Averell responds, knowing he can’t hold this information for long.
Joe laughs, it’s a laugh Averell knows too well as the ‘you silly idiot’ laugh. It’s hearty and loud and had it’s own special way of striking and hurting.
“You really convince yourself of the stupidest things sometimes!” Joe slaps his brothers back. “You’re just seein’ things, Luke has always been an orphan with no family to speak of! How ridiculous- y’know what… never change, Averell, never change.”
Joe has a head shake then goes back to the other two and yanks them apart as the arguing continues on. Averell in most cases would accept what Joe had to say but he knows exactly what he seen and heard in that barn, it wasn’t a mistake.
The cowboy’s roots ran much more than what anyone knew.